Hospitals and similar medical facilities, such as clinics, infirmaries and even occasionally private physician's offices, are notorious as sources of microbial infection. Despite the establishment of sterile fields in operating rooms and strict sanitation procedures throughout medical facilities, secondary infection of patients is endemic in medical facilities that manage and treat large numbers of patients.
Sources of infection in medical facilities can extend outside the typical treatment areas into patient care areas such as private and semi-private residential rooms, wards, and even lounges. These latter locations are typically furnished with convenience—oriented items such as telephones, bed controllers, and television remote control devices. These items are equipped with control knobs, push buttons, cords or cables, and orifices leading to earpieces and speakers to allow for telephone conversations and listening to televisions and radio broadcasts. Furthermore, these devices often have a multi-part body which is used to house electronic or other components. Consequently, the smooth contours of the bodies of these devices are marred by holes, grooves, niches, indentations, vents, and similar features that are usually small, narrow, and difficult to thoroughly clean.
In addition, cut backs in hospital funding often lead to reductions in staff, especially in maintenance and housekeeping personnel who are charged with sanitation and cleaning throughout a medical facility, including patient care areas. Such reductions in personnel mean that fewer people are available to do the same amount of work meaning that often noncritical areas may not be cleaned as carefully as necessary. As a result, microbes are allowed to flourish outside critical care areas leading to enhanced exposure of patient and staff to primary or secondary infection. Patients, who are often in a weakened condition when in a hospital type facility, are especially susceptible to these types of infections.
One method of reducing the probability of infection from these devices is to cover or wrap the devices with sanitary or sterile coverings to contain the microbes already present on or within a particular device and prevent them from contacting a patient or other person who may handle that device. One group of such “containment” coverings is designed for use in surgical procedures to preserve the sterile field in an operating room. Typical of this group is U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,188 issued in 1998 to Adair. The '188 patent discloses a sterile encapsulated endoscopic video monitor cover designed to provide a nonsterile cover for a endoscope video monitor to allow the monitor to be placed into a sterile field without introducing possible infectious microbes. The '188 device comprises a rigid or flexible enclosure that is either transparent or has a transparent window positioned over a video monitor. U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,045, issued in 1998 to Adair discloses a device configured to cover a nonsterile camera for use in the sterile environment in an operating room. U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,196, issued in 1985 to Cunningham, et al. discloses a sterile covering for a surgical camera comprising an annular ring attached to a containment cover that enables the attachment of a nonsterile camera to a sterile endoscope. U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,657, issued 1994 to Lafferty, et al. discloses a sleeve for maintaining sterility of a arthroscopic procedure by covering the cable of an endoscope cable extending from the sterile field to a nonsterile TV monitor. Similar to the '196 device, it comprises an annular ring that attaches the sleeve to the arthroscope. One drawback of these devices is that they generally lack the flexibility to be used with a variety of different devices. In addition, they do not enclose any part of any cords or cables that extend from the instrument out of the sterile field or any cable or cord outlets. Finally, these and similar devices often require a careful manipulation to attach and/or cover the nonsterile instrument or device which requires the use of trained personnel.
A second group of containment coverings includes covers that can be quickly placed over devices more typically used in every day situations. An example is found in United States Patent Application No. 2003/0012371 to Weinsock, et al. disclosing a cover for a telephone receiver. Although designed to enclose a phone, the '371 device comprises an open net type configuration over the ear and mouth microphones and an open area in the handle portion of the sock through which the phone is inserted. U.S. Pat. No. 4,939,778, issued in 1990 to Tomberlin, discloses a sleeve that encloses a telephone cord primarily designed to prevent the cord from becoming entangled with itself. U.S. Pat. No. 6,560,335, issued in 2003 to Zohn, et al. discloses a cover designed to fit over the earpiece and/or mouth piece of a telephone. In other embodiments, pieces can be formed from templates to enclose a phone or other device. These and similar devices posses the drawback of either not enclosing an entire device or, as in the case of some of the '335 embodiments, require adhesives and a significant amount of time to properly enclose the target device.
What is need then is protective covering that is quick and easy to use, disposable, does not require trained personnel to use, covers the part of a cord or cable extending from a device as well as the cord or cable outlet, and possesses the flexibility to be used with a variety of different devices.